STRATEGIC MODELLING & MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT BRIEF 2025-2026

Individual Assignment

This assignment is based on a live case study that is to be undertaken by you.
The case study organization for this assignment is a manufacturing firm. You can pick any firm if their activities are predominantly in the area of manufacturing. However, any of the firms that are discussed in class are exempt.

The Assignment Brief:

You have been asked by the CEO of a manufacturing firm to undertake a comprehensive strategic investigation to identify whether there is a strategic issues / area of concern that the firm may be facing and to recommend a way of dealing with this issue or area of concern (part 1). You are also asked to evaluate your options that you formulate and the recommendation that you make against a scenario analysis (part 2) The three questions you need to provide an to answer are:

Part 1:

1)    Identify an issue / area of concern that might affect the success and survival of the firm.
2)    Formulate options and propose one as the recommendation as to what the firm should do about this issue going forward.

Part 2:

3)    Evaluate the options and recommendation against a scenario analysis, to provide more detailed advice on what needs to be considered when the firm acts on your recommendation.

You should write a report to the CEO of the firm in question, which consists of two parts. The report should be dated at the current date and should consider the firm’s state of affairs at that date.

Part 1 should provide a reasoned argument how you have arrived at the strategic issue that you have identified and what your recommendation is to deal with this issue. The argument that you develop should explicitly be based on at least one of the strategy theories that are available in “The Strategic Manager’ book. In making a recommendation, you have to base yourself on your analysis, weigh different options and present a reasoned argument why you think which of the options would be the best one. Your options and recommendation must be analytically grounded to enable you to produce coherent and well-reasoned arguments in support of the recommendation you make in your report, The full argument for part 1 by which you arrive at your conclusions should be in the report. Anything in the appendices will not be seen as part of the argument. Also do not expect that the more theoretical approaches you apply, the better it is. You will have to weigh depth of analysis against breath, especially because part 1 of the report should be no more than 1500 words (+/-10%) in length (which includes figures and tables, but excludes references and any appendices). Evidence of reading relevant literature will influence the marking.

Part 1 comprises 50% of the total marks for the assignment.

While there will be information on your chosen firm / organization on the Internet, the onus is on you to find the information you require on the firm / organization and its’ operations. Access to information for example, on the current strategy, the environment and the firm itself is essential in this assignment to enable you to undertake a sufficiently comprehensive analysis. Note that while it is accepted that certain information will not be easy to obtain because it may not be publicly available, there are other ways to collect information – you may for example arrange to interview a manager(s) of your case study firm / organization in your city/state. The Business School – mostly through library resources – has several databases available that contain relevant information. Nevertheless, there will always be information missing, which compels you to accommodate what you do not know in your argument.

Assignment Assessment:

Assessment of this assignment is based on two essential strategic management skills: (1) understanding and application of strategy theory and scenario thinking; and (2) synthesis of findings and argument building. Clearly therefore while ‘analysis’ is extremely important, it is only one ingredient in the assessment of this assignment, and for an assignment to fall into the “excellent” range, it would require:

• The faultless utilization of a strategy theory and scenario thinking.
• The in-depth analysis based on extensive research, of the firm/organization itself, the environment in which the organization operates, and the organization’s strategy.
• A coherent and logical synthesis of the analysis presented, leading to the identification of an issue and key implications for competitive advantage and legitimacy in terms of the match between the three elements of firm/organization, environment, and strategy.
• A thorough assessment of the strategic options available to the organization (strategic options can be put forward in terms of a mix of changing the strategy, working on the organization, and /or changing the environment in which the organization operates) to address an issue that has been identified.
• The recommendation made on the basis of a thoughtful consideration of the options that have been put forward, explaining how well an option addresses the issues that have been identified.
• A technically correct application of the intuitive Logics scenario development process
• A well-documented and defensible evaluation of strategic options against the developed scenarios.
• A professional overall presentation, the selective use of appropriate supporting appendices and appropriate referencing of academic and data sources. Academic sources are to be referenced according to one of the accepted standards. Information sources are to be referenced by way of footnotes. This includes occasions where you have relied on artificial intelligence.

Assignment Regulations:

• The use of the standard title page is compulsory (available on MyPlace). It allows you to put in all the relevant information about your assignment, your chosen firm/organization and about yourself. There is no need for fancy artwork.
• The assignment is undertaken as an individual assignment.
• The assignment has a designated word limit, and infractions of the limit can incur a penalty in the form of a reduction in the assignment mark.
• You may use Generative Artificial Intelligence in your assignment provided you fully comply with the following guidelines:

1. As Generative AI does not keep a record and the results can change significantly from day to day, you should include a full screenshot (showing the date) of the question(s) that you asked, and a screenshot of the answer(s) provided. The screenshots should be included in an Appendix following the list of References for your assignment.
2. You should properly cite the use of Generative AI in the text of your assignment using footnotes at any point in the text that is (partially) based on AI.
3. Failure to properly acknowledge the use of Gen. AI could result in allegations of plagiarism, which could seriously impede your grade and degree progression.